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great success story of the creation of jobs in the ACT. As a result of today's jobs figures, more good news flows to the Keating Government. They have demonstrated that, continually, unemployment is falling and, continually, employment figures are going up. This is all good news for the people of Australia under a Labor government.

Mr Kaine: That is why you are out, and that is why they will be out.

MR BERRY: These people opposite are not even good at picking the timing for this motion. What a day to pick - a day when the employment figures come out and they show employment going up and unemployment coming down.

Mrs Carnell: Where? Not in the ACT.

Mr De Domenico: Not in the ACT.

MR BERRY: Right across Australia. I thank the Liberal members opposite for interjecting and saying, “Not in the ACT”. The situation in the ACT, Mr Speaker, is stable, except that it all stopped last February. Since February, Mr Speaker, the job ads in the ACT have fallen by 18 per cent. Since a Liberal government came to office job ads have fallen by 18 per cent. What we have to worry about is the outmonths. It is stable now, but down she goes while ever this Liberal Government opposite is involved in the sort of inactivity which has given rise to the plummeting business confidence out there in the community.

What business would not lack confidence when you have a look at the great achievements of this Government! What a great job they did at COAG! What a great job Mrs Carnell did at COAG! She got half the amount of support for the Territory that we got last year and, as well, she had to throw away some very important public land. Not only that; she threw away control over public land and at the same time guaranteed that we would bring it up to scratch for the Commonwealth. Take the Acton Peninsula. How much is it going - - -

Mr Connolly: That is what Mrs Carnell said: “Take the Acton Peninsula. Here you are”.

MR BERRY: “Here you are”. How much is it going to cost to clear the site? Nobody knows. How much is it going to cost to relocate all of the people on that site who now have to be relocated? Nobody knows. All of the unknowns.

Let us take a little tootle around the lake over to Kingston. What do we find there? We find a contaminated site. That is what we find. But how contaminated? We do not know. What we do know is that we have to fix it. How much is it going to cost? We do not know. All of these are unknowns. It is no wonder that business out there is becoming a little bit quiet on its development programs in the Territory. It is no wonder that business is not keen to advertise to employ, because we have a government that not only has absolutely botched the negotiations at COAG and cost this Territory millions; it also gave the Commonwealth, in weak negotiations, access to Territory funds because we are going to have to clean up the mess on both the Acton site and the Kingston site.


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